Sagebrush Birds - Point Reyes Bird Observatory

Challenges and Solutions
The habitat then usually switches from a mixture
of shrubs and perennial grasses to invasive annual
grasses, displacing native wildlife. Where fires have
become very frequent, they prevent the shrubs from
returning, making this conversion to non-native grassland
permanent.
In other areas, suppression of wildfires allows juniper
and pinyon trees to invade. When woodland habitat
is established, understory vegetation is significantly
reduced and fire will not carry. This eventually results
in the permanent loss of sagebrush habitats and transition
to permanent woodlands.
These transitions from one habitat type to another can
be extremely difficult to reverse and are responsible
for making the sagebrush steppe less valuable to wildlife
and people.
Conservation Practices
• Use management strategies that include part or all of
the following:
– Maintain or create a patchwork of native perennial
bunchgrasses, forbs, and legumes, mature and
young sagebrush, and open ground.
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